Election debate fever

IT was a rainy day and the driver of the commercial bus was savouring the music coming out of the bus sound system. Then the music was interrupted by the presenter as he read the news of the day. But what caught the attention of most passengers was the report that the  Adamu Ciroma-led PDP Northern caucus had after many days of politicking eventually picked former Vice President, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku as the consensus candidate for the North.
In reaction to this, the driver said: “Na wah for these our politicians O. Does it mean that in the whole North they cannot see another person to pick except somebody who has been in power for a long time? Why do we always like recycling people to rule us?”
A man, Akeem, reacted thus: “If the man is from the North  what is your problem with it? The man has a right to seek to be elected; if you don’t like him all you need do is not to vote for him when the time comes. For me it is experience and ability to perform that matter. Atiku to me is a good candidate because he was the one that fought and stopped Obasanjo’s third term ambition”.
But another passenger, Innocent, sharply disagreed, saying that Atiku still has questions to answer over some corruption allegations. Akeem, however, quickly dismissed the allegations as the product of rumour mongers.
On his own part, a passenger sitting behind the driver by name Marthins said: “Well, with all that 1 can see 1 think Jonathan should kiss Aso Rock goodbye because there’s no way he will be able to beat Atiku at the PDP primaries”.
It was like stirring the hornet’s nest as most of  the other passengers expressed opposition to the statement.
“If you people think that we will lose our mandate to a Northern caucus,  then you’re only deceiving yourselves,” angrily responded one fellow by name Alali.  “We love GEJ and want him to continue the good work he has started,” he added.
He was supported by a female commuter who went on to say: “GEJ is our own consensus candidate; no matter what anybody says we will vote for him. Even if PDP fails to give him their ticket we the masses will encourage him to run on another party so that we can give  him our vote”. A man by name Fred chipped in thus: “Who says it is our vote that counts here? We have never voted anybody into power since the Abiola era. What we have had since that time has been election rigging unlimited.
“Look at the elections of 2007. The rigging was so much that those declared winners were ashamed to claim they won. And today the courts have upturned the outcome of many of these so-called elections. In fact, God will not forgive them. Riggers stealing the people’s mandate. Well, we hope the coming of Jonathan will change all that for good”.
The driver rejoined the debate by saying: “Why are we even killing ourselves over these politicians? Are they not all the same? Even Jonathan and Atiku are the same one and six pence. I do not think either of them can make  any difference. Jonathan is not our messiah”.
Alali did not take kindly to this as he queried heatedly: “What do you mean by that? The guy has okayed N18,000 as minimum wage and we have not experienced fuel shortage since he came into office. This goes to show he means well”.
But the driver was not impressed.  “They always try to impress while they are still new in office. Wait until he has stayed long in power and see what happens. That’s when he will start showing his true colour,” he said. But his statement was almost drowned in a cacophony of voices.
Source:http://www.vanguardngr.com/